The overall goal of the Leadership Alliance is to identify, train and network young underrepresented minority scientists in and through graduate training and professional apprenticeships to compete for positions in the academy. The contribution of the Partnership for Minority Science Education (PMSE) program to this overall goal is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in graduate programs in the sciences. The five specific aims of the proposal are to: 1) Recruit Diverse, Research-Oriented Undergraduates as Program Participants;2) Provide High Quality, Summer Research Experiences in the Community of Academic Scholars;3) Provide Program Participants with an Introduction to the Context of the Research Professions;4) Monitor the Number of Students Who Enter and Complete Graduate Research Programs;5) Evaluate Program Outcomes and Disseminate Best Practices. Specifically, we are seeking support for ancillary training activities of 120 students per year in biomedical and behavioral sciences majors relevant to biomedicine from 7/1/2006 to 6/30/2011. In addition, this proposal seeks partial funding for a comprehensive formative and summative evaluation of the PMSE project, support for initiatives for Alliance research mentors, and partial support for the Alliance Executive Office staff. Our efforts, through PMSE, are intended to provide encouragement to students who aspire to obtain a Ph.D. to result in their greater acceptance to and persistence in competitive graduate programs across the country.